I thought I would share the laundry list of reasons for choosing to undertake the publication of my three-volume SF novel, In the Shadow of the She-Wolf. Though some aspects of the situation I found myself in with this book are probably uncommon, I’m sure the issues I’ve considered here may strike a chord with many other authors.  Some of those issues relate to market-related challenges, others are mostly personal, and some are a combination of both.

There are at least two things that make the situation surrounding publication of She-Wolf unusual.  The first is the amount of time I’ve spent working on this story; I’ve been pulling this book out and rewriting it on and off throughout my entire adult life — ever since I wrote the first sparse draft during my last year in high school — and that affects both my relationship with the novel and how much patience I have for the process at this point.  The second is that I’m one of the owners and editors of a small press.  Although I started the press last year with a couple of my siblings (and we’re beginning by publishing several of our father’s books as we learn the ropes), it is a bona fide independent press that will hopefully publish the works of many authors over many years.

While it was in the back of my mind that it would make it easier if I chose to go that way at some point, the business was definitely not created for the purpose of publishing my own books.  So in a sense, having our press publish this novel is a hybrid between being published by a small press and self-publishing, making it like becoming a hybrid of a hybrid.  (Maybe that’s a ‘double hybrid’? Or a ‘hybrid squared’?)  In any case, it also means I’ve already started to acquire a bit of experience in book publishing, and I’m not doing it on my own. Continue reading →